grswindl

Hiyo, I'm new up here, but I know that I've met a many of you out and about in my tour de force of CHE programs this spring. I enjoyed the whole experience (can't say that I've learned so much in such little time before). I'm going to be looking for others who are headed where I am when I know where that will be. I will be deciding Sunday. For now, here's how my season went. Accepted: Cornell, Colorado, Delaware, Johns Hopkins, Minnesota, Texas, Wisconsin Rejected: MIT I honestly wasn't too sad about that rejection- I'm looking at big, collaborative programs, and it only fits 50% of that bill. My profile: Undergrad: NCSU ChE GPA: 3.73 total, 3.81 major GRE: 640V/750M/5.5A Research: Extensive, across four projects from nanoparticles to biomedical coatings to microfluidic materials. Publications: "Materials of Controlled Shape and Stiffness with Photocurable Microfluidic Endoskeleton." Published in this upcoming issue of Advanced Materials- with cover! Other activities: many leadership activities, ranging from promotion and recruitment for NCSU College of Engineering to founding a major new event on campus. I think that my college experience is living proof that getting accepted to graduate programs doesn't have to be about a fantastic GPA and an amazing GRE score. I spent minimal effort to keep that GPA and get the scores I needed to just get through the proverbial "cut-offs," and put all of my time and energy into dedicated research and leadership activities. I think that this is a much more fun way to get into the best schools that you can- demonstrate that you're a well-rounded scholar instead of a student. Gradegroveling and standardized test scores doesn't make anyone a fantastic researcher in grad school. I've come to the realization that I'm going to have to make a decision without hearing back from NSF. Based on their selection process, we'll see how my sub-par quantitative credentials in the competition pan out. I think I put together the best possible application I could, with help from many experienced people here at NCSU, so we'll see... Anyways, that's a little bit about me. I'm going to be trying to find a biomaterials project - more emphasis on the materials (either inorganics or polymers) than the bio-side. I want part of my thesis to involve computational efforts in biomedical systems modeling. I have narrowed down my search to Wisconsin and Minnesota- they are much stronger overall than the other programs to which I was accepted. Some programs were narrow, some building, and some just gave off a bad vibe. I couldn't find much fault with either UMN or UW. Let me know your thoughts- and I'll keep up with you all to see where we go! G

jasmad- you will go to Minnesota... (jedi mind trick). I just joined up on here and found your thread. You have gotten into many good places, young padawan. But you are not a Jedi yet... Where are you thinking as of now?